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| Happy Birthday AmericaWe had a great 4th of July weekend here. We started out by going to the pool on Friday with our pastor/wife/kids. The girls are getting better at swimming with floaties. On Saturday, we hit a church picnic first. We then went our friends house where they had some family in from the Netherlands. Kind of fun talking with the Dutch for the day. They really liked my orange jacket since orange is like their national color = the Dutch must be cool. The only color that Avery is identifying with any consistency is orange - teaching her young. We took this picture behind my friend's house between rain showers. We then all loaded up and went to post for 10 minutes of fireworks. Not a bad display, just kind of short. 1030 kickoff time with the super late sunset. On Sunday, we had a long bar-b-que with some of our American and German neighbors. They start off with coffee and cake at 2, real food at 5ish, and then just hanging out until whenever. Not sure when they ended it, but we left at 9. A few of them spoke English so that was pretty enjoyable. Today? We've done a whole lot of nothing. Just sitting around. Another busy week for me. I've transitioned to become the Senior Prosecutor for 6 bases over here. They've got me swamped helping the junior attorneys and my boss is about to go on leave b/c of a newborn yet to arrive. Anyway, a great 4th and I hope you all are doing well. 
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| Fun times in Croatia!We are back from a wonderful vacation in Croatia. It's been an eventful week. Two days before our trip, they cancelled our hotel reservations, so with a 6 hour frantic search on the internet, we were able to find a beautiful place inside the town of Vrsar. We headed out on Friday, July 19th and arrived in Croatia on Saturday July 20th. The first full day included sunshine and hours spent at the pool and the pebble beach. The next day we woke up to cloudy skies. The forecast for the rest of the week was more clouds and rain. After two days of clouds, Reagan and I prayed for a change of heart (to be thankful for what God has given us) and if it be his will to give us sunshine. The next morning we woke up to a beautiful sun shiny day!!!  This past week we enjoyed trips to Pula to see the Ampitheater and to Rovinj (one of my top favorite cities). Below you will see pics of our fun times in Croatia! P.S. Thank you Jake for a wonderful week. It was hard to let you go back to work today. We love you and are so blessed to have such a fantastic husband and father. I hope this trip was just as memorable for you as it was for us. You're the best, baby!!! | | |
| Memorial Day CampingThese are some long overdue pictures from our camping trip in Pottenstein, Germany, over the Memorial Day weekend. It also happened to be Father's Day weekend in Germany, so the camp grounds were pretty crowded. They do things a bit differently over here as we were to just find some open ground and set up the tents. We had to have a grill to have a fire because what's camping without a fire? Anyway, we went with our friends Lance and Jamie with their dog Moe. We had to bid them farewell a few weeks ago as they are now in Arizona. We had an absolute blast roasting marshmallows and hotdogs, making pizza sandwiches in the fire, and making some delicious breakfasts with eggs, bacon and pancakes as all of our German neighbors munched on their meat and cheese sandwiches. Over the few days there, we played mini-cornhole and bachi ball, went down the summer rodelbahn mountain, ate lunch while paddleboating, froze our ankles in a creek, and just had a good time. It was nice to slow down and enjoy the time with friends. So, here are some pics from that weekend. The extra little critter is my niece Lilly who got to camp with us too! | | |
| Battle of the Bulge - Bastogne, BelgiumA few weeks ago I traveled to Belgium and Luxembourg to tour the land that was Hitler's last attempt at victory in the Battle of the Bulge. I took the trip with other staff officers from the 2d Stryker Cavalry Regiment. We visited two museums, several small towns and monuments, the German hillside looking into Luxembourg just as the German soldiers did before they attacked, and the American cemetery in Luxembourg - resting place of the great General George S. Patton. We walked the same grounds that Easy Company, 101st Airborne Division, held during the frigid fighting in December 1944 as made famous in Tom Hanks "Band of Brothers" (if you haven't seen this series, it is an absolute must watch). Looking over the village of Foyt was pretty humbling knowing what they went through over 65 years ago. Most of the towns are much larger today and the damaged buildings have all been removed or repaired. However, the landscape is the same and it is neat to hear the stories of the battle. The people of Belgium and Luxembourg still love the American people for rescuing her for Hitler's grip. Below is a picture of our staff at LT Boggess's Bunker. The Colonel in the orange jacket is our current and 75th Regimental Commander. When Bastogne was surrounded and being bombarded by the Germans, General Patton's 3d Army, led by then Lieutenant Colonel Creighton Abrams (the guy they named the tank after), charged north to relieve the 101st Airborne Division. The first tank to make contact with the American lines was led by Lieutenant Boggess who saw some engineer soldiers attacking Germans in this bunker. This link-up allowed the Americans to open up a supply line and get critical care to wounded soldiers. Just a little over a month later, all the Germans were back in Germany and General Patton was charging to victory. 
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